Four years after being pardoned by President Donald J. Trump for crimes related to foreign lobbying, Paul Manafort is once again seeking business from foreign political interests.
Mr. Manafort, who ran Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign for several months, assembled a team of consultants who helped Mr. Trump run his 2024 campaign, and has worked with opposition and far-right political campaigns in Latin America and Europe. trying to offer advice. According to documents and interviews.
Mr. Manafort has discussed working for a French billionaire who supports anti-immigration politicians, including Marine Le Pen, and for an ultra-conservative Peruvian mayor who is considered a potential presidential candidate. Mr. Manafort has also been associated with Ukrainian interests whose Russia-aligned interests led to his ouster.
The circumstances surrounding his re-emergence into the international political consulting scene are uncertain, especially in Ukraine, where there are concerns about Trump’s commitment to help defend against Russian aggression and where Manafort’s previous activities remain in the spotlight. It is also an area where
A memo detailing the team’s members and promoting their services recently circulated in Kiev’s political circles, sparking a disturbing conversation.
Manafort said in a statement that he has been contacted by “numerous parties in Ukraine,” but “has never submitted a proposal on any issue to anyone in Ukraine.” He said he had not signed any contracts.
He did not respond to questions from the Times about other international business development efforts, and their status is unclear.
Among the people named in the version of the Manafort memo reviewed by the New York Times are Chris Lacivita, who helped run Trump’s 2024 campaign, and Trump’s recent campaign appointees. This includes a company founded by political director James Blair. As chief of staff for the next White House administration. Also named is Tony Fabrizio, a former Trump pollster who worked overseas for Mr. Manafort’s Russian-Ukrainian clients.
The team and its overseas business recruitment, which had not been previously reported, comes as international interest in forging ties with Trump comes as he emerges at the center of a growing populist movement of immigration critics around the world. I’m trying to use it.
Trump’s election and his relationship with Manafort open a new chapter in the 75-year-old operative’s long career in international politics.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Mr. Manafort earned millions of dollars campaigning and lobbying for foreign politicians in Washington by positioning them as allies of the Reagan and Bush administrations. He contributed to the development of a consulting model that receives In the fight against communism.
Mr. Manafort appeared poised to capitalize on his ties to Mr. Trump by pursuing international consulting contracts after the 2016 election. Instead, he became the focus of the special counsel’s investigation into the Trump team’s ties to Russia, and was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for financial and tax crimes related to income from Ukraine, as well as conspiracy to violate foreign lobbying laws. received the verdict. .
In the final weeks of his first term, Trump pardoned Manafort, and Manafort quietly began exploring business opportunities overseas. Colleagues and competitors say his chances expanded after Trump’s victory in November.
“People who knew Paul around the world were always very surprised to see what happened to him,” said Hector Hoyos, a longtime friend and former business partner. “He’s always been sought after. Why? Because I think he’s one of the smartest political tacticians of our generation.”
In a pitch memo seen by the Times, Manafort’s team said it would “develop a cutting-edge, multifaceted campaign plan” to boost France’s “centre-right party” by targeting and mobilizing voters it supports. We promise to develop it. Research your opponent and attack to weaken them.
This pitch appears to have been prepared for the Pericles Project. The project comes after billionaire Pierre-Edouard Stellan and his colleague Arnaud Leroll invested more than $150 million over 10 years to support right-wing French parties, including Le. This is a business that started in 2023. Penn’s national convention party.
Mr. Manafort and John Harkrider, a low-profile Texan active in international finance and politics, held a phone conversation with Mr. Lerol to discuss possible involvement, after which Manafort’s team offered a proposal. he agreed to do so, Lerol told The Paper. times.
Lerol said that the Pericles Project has decided not to enter into any contract with the team. Mr. Stelin’s team maintains close ties with Mr. Le Pen’s National Rally, but four senior party officials said they had not heard about possible future cooperation with Mr. Manafort.
Manafort’s speech comes at a time when right-wing parties are on the rise in France and are expected to do well in upcoming elections. Mr. Manafort previously worked in France, where he wrote campaign strategies for leading center-right candidates in the 1995 French presidential election.
Mr. Halkrider and Mr. Fabrizio did not respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Lacivita said in a statement that he “currently does not have a contract” with Mr. Fabrizio as part of the Manafort coalition. But he said, “Successful political consultants on both the right and the left routinely do political consulting overseas,” adding, “People who are trying to make their country great again and are aligned with U.S. foreign policy. We always welcome the opportunity to support.”
Mr. Lacivita and Mr. Fabrizio were announced last month as advisers to a nonprofit organization that plans to air ads supporting Mr. Trump’s policies.
A Trump spokesman said Manafort had no role on the transition team.
In addition to Harkrider, the team also includes Vincent Harris, a digital advertising strategist who briefly worked for Trump’s 2016 campaign, according to the memo.
Harris did not respond to a request for comment, but the memo shows she has international experience and has worked for far-right international politicians, including Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. .
Three people familiar with Mr. Manafort’s efforts to restructure his international political consulting business spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations, as he approaches his first presidential election in several years in 2026. He said he is exploring the possibility of Mr. Manafort operating in Peru. Political turmoil, violence, and discontent with the political class.
Last month, Mr. Manafort spoke with a representative for Lima Mayor Rafael López Arriaga, a business tycoon and leader of Peru’s right wing who is seen as a possible 2026 presidential candidate, one of the people said. That’s what it means.
López Arriaga, who finished third in Peru’s 2021 presidential election, attended a gathering of Trump associates and far-right politicians from around the world in Buenos Aires last month. He reiterated false claims that Trump won the 2020 US presidential election and called out what he described as a left-wing cabal invested in preventing Peru from developing and realizing its potential. vehemently criticized.
It is unclear whether Mr. Manafort has any formal relationship with Mr. López Arriaga, and his office did not respond to requests for comment.
Manafort said in a statement that he hears rumors about his return to Ukraine “almost every week.”
“The answer is that I have not been in Ukraine for about 10 years and have no plans to visit,” he said.
Still, people familiar with the situation say some of Manafort’s pitch memos are aimed at prominent politicians who are considered potential rivals to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in future elections, which have yet to be scheduled. It is said that it went to several Ukrainians allied with the US. They said these Ukrainians were not interested in Mr. Manafort’s services. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared a backlash from Trump if he publicly criticized Manafort.
Some members of Mr. Manafort’s coalition were surprised to learn they were cited in a memo circulated in Ukraine.
“Had I known that this was a potential client, I would have politely declined the above pitch as I have no intention of working there at this time,” Ryan Smith, president of Rapid Loop Consulting, said in a statement. Deaf,” he said.
Rapid Loop Consulting was founded by Mr. Blair in 2013, and his work with the Trump campaign was introduced in the memo. Smith said he withdrew from the company completely after the election.
Smith said Rapid Loop had agreed to participate in a pitch with Manafort’s coalition “if the company determines there is an opportunity to provide value,” but added that “there is no specific future engagement.” He added that he had not discussed the issue with anyone at the federation.
Concerns about working in Ukraine stem partly from Mr. Trump’s skepticism about the ongoing war and U.S. military aid to defend Ukraine, and partly from Mr. Manafort’s history. .
He received tens of millions of dollars in payments from oligarchs and other interests supporting the party of Viktor F. Yanukovych, whom Manafort successfully campaigned for president of Ukraine in 2010. Despite the government’s corruption and proclivity toward Moscow, Mr. Manafort continued to quietly court the oligarchs who supported Yanukovych’s government. Mr. Manafort offered to serve as a liaison for Mr. Trump’s team, advising a new party aligned with Russia.
According to one report, Mr. Manafort and a colleague later identified by prosecutors as a “former Russian intelligence officer” discussed plans to end hostilities that could transfer control of parts of Ukraine to Russia. It is said that Yanukovych was reinstated as the region’s leader. The special counsel’s report investigating Trump’s team.
Mr. Manafort was also one of Mr. Trump’s associates who secretly encouraged Mr. Trump and his team to mistrust Ukraine. It culminated in a White House pressure campaign against Zelensky’s administration that backfired badly and led to Trump’s first impeachment.
Still, Mr. Manafort maintained his position with Mr. Trump and got back on track after receiving a pardon. He accepted a volunteer role to help plan last year’s Republican National Convention. The agreement ended after a Washington Post report revealed that he continued to pursue international business, including in China.
Mr. Manafort has been seen at President Trump’s private resort, Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida, since the election, according to a person familiar with his whereabouts.
“Trump and he don’t hide the fact that they are friends,” Hoyos said.
Mitra Taj contributed reporting from Lima, Peru.
